Lenn went to Rome in his early life and became a doctor of canon law. He was subsequently made an auditor of causes, in the holy court, by Pope Urban V.[1][2]
In 1356 Lenn was made dean of Chichester Cathedral, then after the death of Bishop Stratford he was selected for the see of Chichester on 16 May 1362, and was consecrated about 18 August 1362.[3]
Lenn's tenure at Chichester was quite short, but during that time he managed to get into a quarrel with the earl of Arundel, Stephens suggests that it was probably a dispute over land.[1] It seems that the bishop procured a citation from Pope Urban V ordering the earl to appear before a court, in Rome, to answer the charges laid against him.[1] The earl treated the summons with contempt and refused to go.[1] What the bishop was trying to do was seen as a violation of both the Statute of Praemunire and the canon law of England. The King, Edward III, was angry at the insult and summoned the bishop to attend the king's court, to account for his actions.[1] The bishop, however, was in Rome at the time but he was convicted in his absence, and all his goods and chattels seized, by the crown.[1]
Lenn was translated to the see of Worcester on 11 October 1368 [4] He died of a stroke, in that office on 18 November 1373, as he mounted a horse to go to London to attend Parliament.[1]
^Coleman English Culture pp. 50-51 ...the most important position at the end of the fourteenth-early fifteenth century was called the abbreviator of the papal chancery. In the early fourteenth century the corresponding post was "auditor of causes of the apostolic palace". The way up was via the notariate and writerships of the chancery. These posts were dominated by English canon lawyers.
^Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 239
^Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 279
References
Coleman, Janet (1985). Piero Boitani (ed.). Chaucer and the Italian Trecento: English Culture in the Fourteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/19830521313503 |19830521313503 [[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]]. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
Stephens W.R.W. (1876). Memorials of the South Saxon See and Cathedral Church of Chichester. London: Richard Bentley and Sons.